The on-rushing band-wagon, full of explosives, may cause more racial strife than forced busing for school integration! Radical blacks are demanding that U.S. taxpayers pay the descendants of slaves a suggested $100,000 each! And yes, I am serious, but it gets worse because black leaders are serious.

Hundreds of people attended the National Reparations Convention in Chicago on February 2-4 where "Brother Howshua" proposed that blacks should receive free education, free medical care, free legal advice and free financial aid with no taxes and if they wish to emigrate to Africa, they would each receive a million dollars! Of reparations, The Washington Post admitted, "The subject is scalding hot, untouchable as public policy. Even the brave run from it." Yes, it is "scalding hot" but no, I am not running from this illegal, immoral, and incredible shakedown. And, make no mistake it is just that: a shakedown, a scam of major proportions.

Let's establish some facts as a foundation for this discussion. Slavery has been a reality since the early days of civilization for a simple reason: Men are inherently wicked. Theologians call it sin that came down to us through our parents from Adam and Eve. Although far more whites have been enslaved than blacks, that makes little difference except for the record.

It is also a fact that black African chiefs enslaved their own people, marched them to the west coast of Africa and sold them to Arab, Portuguese, English, and American traders. When the white slavers refused to pay the black slave traders' asking price, the chiefs simply refused to sell. They knew how to get their price. It's called "waiting." The white slavers pouted in their ships just off shore as their food and water dissipated. Eventually, they capitulated and paid the asking price. The slaves were then distributed all over the world, not only in America.

I also want to make clear that no slaves are alive today in America. If there were, I would agree that they be compensated. When I wrote AIDS: Silent Killer in 1987 I dealt with the now infamous Tuskegee study where black men were used and abused in medical experiments for many years by the U.S. Government. On numerous talk shows I advocated the prosecution of all responsible U.S. officials still alive and reparations for the few still living black men. But no slaves are alive today and it is insane to suggest any kind of payments after 150 years have passed.

There are other problems: Who funds the scam and who profits from the scam? Since the money would come from the general U.S. Treasury then all taxpayers would be paying. That means blacks would be paying for their own reparations! It also means that recent immigrants would be paying as well as descendants of those who arrived in America since the Civil War who had no connection to slavery. Furthermore, Northerners would be paying reparations when their distant relatives fought and died "to free
the slaves"! By what logic can that be justified?

Since only one in five Southern families owned slaves why should their descendants pay for slavery perpetrated by others? Should American Indians pay reparations since they were here before whites or slaves? Of course, some Indians owned black slaves and even ate them during bad times!

Then there is the task of determining who gets paid. If one could justify reparations for blacks who are descendant from slave families how do we know which blacks are descendants of slaves? Many present-day blacks are descendants of free blacks! Some living blacks would be receiving money for mistreatment that did not involve them or their relatives. That is dishonest.

There is another problem that is unknown to most Americans: Out of 250,000 free blacks in the South, about 3,000 of them owed slaves so how do we differentiate between those who had ancestors who were slaves and those whose ancestors were not slaves but were in fact, slaveholders? By paying money (ripped from hard working taxpayers of all races) to blacks whose ancestors owned slaves, we would be rewarding slavery.

It gets even more complicated! Many blacks, slave and free, voluntarily fought for the Confederacy, so do we pay their present-day ancestors reparations? For people who believe those blacks were fighting against freeing the slaves, isnt that very inconsistent?

The argument is made that many of us are taxed for public schools when we don't have school-age children or our kids are in Christian schools, so likewise, there would be some inequities in reparations. However, because one injustice is done does not make an argument for further injustice.

How will it set with poor white Americans who are struggling to live when they are taxed to pay reparations to wealthy blacks such as Jesse Jackson, Johnnie Cochran, Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jordan, Michael Jackson, etc. Talk about racial strife! I suggest that reparations will do more to divide the races than forced busing ever did. Furthermore, I believe that millions of Americans will simply refuse to pay taxes if such an unfair, unreasonable, and unworkable policy is implemented.

Also, American blacks had and have incredible opportunities to be successful in our nation. It is also a fact that the poorest black in the roughest ghetto is many times better off than those blacks living in totalitarian "nations" in Africa. In fact, if I were a Black, I believe I would thank God that my ancestors were brought here so I would have the privilege to live in such a free country where I had the opportunity to hear the gospel of Christ instead of living in constant fear of false pagan gods, tribal wars, starvation, cannibals, etc. While the slave trade was horrific and all connected to it were incredible criminals, there have been residual effects for which I would be thankful if I were black.

If reparations (for long-past crimes) can be justified, then why shouldn't Jews demand payment from Egyptians who kept them in slavery for hundreds of years? Some black extremists tell us that Egyptians were black so that makes a whole "black" civilization slaveholders! How far back do we go to really be "fair"?

The allegation is made that present day America has benefited greatly from the slavery of 150 years ago, consequently it is only reasonable that we should pay the descendants of those who "built this nation." Hold it. If that is true, then how can one say that only white Americans have benefited? Haven't blacks also benefited? After all, American blacks, as a group, have more money than many of the nations of the world! Their income is more than twenty times what they would have if their ancestors had never been sold into slavery. So if present day whites have benefited from slavery, so have present day blacks.

The whining black reverends tell us that reparations were paid to the Jews for their treatment during WW II and to the Japanese for their internment during the war so why no payment for blacks? Simple! The above payments went to the actual people who suffered and so they deserved reparations.

The request (demand?) from blacks for reparations says to blacks, Asians and others that blacks simply can't make it on their own. They want permanent "victimhood" status. They are incapable of making it on their own. Others must push them up the ladder. Many of the "others" are people who have more baggage than the aggrieved blacks. After all, immigrants from totalitarian countries came here from a totally different culture, not speaking English and often quickly surpassed American blacks who don't have the handicaps that Asian newcomers have! Anyone want to explain that to me?

I suggest that black leaders stop "using" the race card to enlarge their bank accounts, enlist more followers and inflate their egos. They should spend their time helping build the black family structure and help cement black/white relations. (Some of those black reverends might even do some preaching since they are "preachers.") They would do well to be honest and admit that many problems in the black community have not evolved from slavery or mistreatment by "whitey" but by the personal failures of blacks.

If slavery is the cause of black problems then why were those problems less dramatic 40 years ago than they are today? Forty years ago there were not the problems among blacks as there are today: 70% illegitimacy in inner cities (In 1960, 23% of kids were born to female-headed homes and at the end of the 1980s it was 62%. And this may be the basic cause of black problems.) Black males, who make up 6% of the population commit 40% of violent crime; black gangs (there are 31,000 gangs in the U.S. with about 1 million members and 80% are blacks); the absence of fathers; the high school dropout rate; juvenile crime, (60% of the juvenile murder defendants in criminal court are black males; 72% of the rape defendants, 78% of the robbery defendants, 61% of the assault defendants and 65% of defendants charged with other types of violent crime are also black males Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 1999 National Report). So if black problems are a legacy of slavery why were the numbers better 40 years ago? Could it be a problem of choices, values, and character?

I suggest black politicians and black reverends have much work to do before they try to lay guilt at the feet of whites. In fact, let me be very clear: Here is one white Christian male who is guilt-free. I have never done any harm to any black, and I treat all people as people. I harbor no guilt. None, zero, zilch. And I will never willingly pay for black slavery. It is a scam and black leaders should be ashamed of themselves.

Copyright, 2001, Don Boys, Ph.D (Permission is granted for this article to be used by anyone, anywhere as long as no changes are made, including this tag. We suggest that pastors and others duplicate it and give to members, publish in newspapers, use on radio and television broadcasts, web sites, etc. (Maybe USA Today and ABC News should receive a few thousand copies of this article. Send to your local evolutionist, etc.)

Boys is a former member of the Indiana House of Representatives, author of 11 books, frequent quest on radio and television talk shows such as the Sally Jessy Raphael Show (2); the Jerry Springer Show (3); Crossfire; NBC Nightly News; CBS Morning News; etc. He and his wife Ellen live in Ringgold, GA and travel the nation, Australia and Europe doing family conferences, creation conferences, revival meetings, etc. His address is P.O. Box 944, Ringgold, GA 30736.-